“That went better than I expected!” shouted an exuberant Alcander as he led the way through the dark forest, the sun having set not too long ago.

“Indeed, that was remarkably easy.  It would’ve been much harder if they had prepared better, though…” said Marcus.  The Steel Century had just attacked the Obsidian Cataphracts as they were building their camp.  The battle had been quick and as brutal as it could be with their stunning weapons, but the Steel Century had still managed to seize the Obsidian Cataphract’s banner and bringing their total number of banners up to four, though it had cost them thirty casualties, which they were now carrying back to their own camp.  Marcus was sure the Cataphracts would retaliate as soon as they were able, but the threat they posed only brought a smile of anticipation to his lips.

“Stay cautious!” Marcus shouted to his unit as they reorganized themselves about half a mile west of the Obsidian Cataphracts’ camp.  “We can celebrate our victory back at camp, but we’re not—"

He would’ve continued speaking, but the arrow that had come from seemingly nowhere and struck him in the gap in his armor at his armpit made that impossible.  For a moment, Alcander stared in disbelief as Marcus crumpled to the ground before dozens more arrows rained down upon them.  Most fell upon those at the front and back of their movement column, while those in the middle were largely hampered by carrying their casualties from the brief clash with the Obsidian Cataphracts and were subsequently passed over.

“RAISE SHIELDS!” Alcander roared, just barely managing to do so himself in time to block an arrow that certainly would’ve knocked him out.

Three more arrow barrages fell upon the Steel Century, leaving more than sixty of the trainees unconscious, including those casualties sustained in the previous battle.  Alcander wasn’t one of them.  He heard some footsteps a few feet in front of him—right where their banner carriers had fallen—and he peeked out from behind his shield to get a look at who it was.

Standing in front of him, just out of reach, were Leon, Castor, and Alphonsus.

“YES!  FINALLY!” he shouted as he cast away his shield and reached for the enormous ax strapped to his back.  “I’M GETTING THAT DUEL, LEON!”

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” Castor said with a smile, his eyes flitting to the discarded shield.  Half a dozen arrows shot past the three third-tier trainees and hit Alcander, knocking him down before he could do anything more than widen his eyes at the realization of what Castor meant.  His armor kept him conscious, but both of his arms and one of his legs had been disabled, leaving him helpless for the three second-tier Snow Lions who advanced toward the fallen banners.  One of them, with a casual swing of his sword, finished the job the arrows had started and stunned Alcander.

“Hey, look at this,” said another, lifting the Obsidian Cataphracts’ banner.

“Huh.  I guess these guys beat us to the punch,” Alphonsus said with a wide smile.  He walked forward and personally took the extra banner, right in front of the last few still-standing men in the Steel Century, locked in their shield wall by the Snow Lions’ archers.

“Drop that!” shouted one from the safety of the hastily established shield wall.  When Alphonsus glanced over, he recognized the man as one of the third-tier trainees in the Steel Century—the last one who wasn’t stunned, he reckoned.

“Why don’t you come out and make me drop it?” Alphonsus challenged.  The other man almost tried just that, but he only needed one look around to immediately think again; there were barely more than twenty men on his side who were in any condition to fight, and he could just barely see the glinting of the Snow Lions’ swords and armor in the darkness of the late-evening forest, waiting to strike from the shadows of the forest.  His side was horribly outnumbered and in a terrible tactical position.  The Steel Century wasn’t going to win.

But he still couldn’t just let the Snow Lions leave with all four of their banners.  The third-tier mage grit his teeth and leaped out of the tight ring of Steel Century shields directly at Alphonsus.  He swung his sword down with all of his might, hoping to at least stun Alphonsus and make his unit’s defeat that much less terrible.  Unfortunately for him, Alphonsus hadn’t made an empty challenge; he easily side-stepped, and the man was peppered with arrows.

“Well, good night to you gentlemen!” Castor cheekily said to the remaining Steel Century trainees, flashing them an almost mocking smile as he spoke.  Then, he turned back to his own unit and said, “Now let’s grab those banners and head back to camp!”

And just like that, the Snow Lions vanished into the dark forest after firing one more volley of arrows, leaving those few men in the Steel Century who were still standing to tend to their stunned comrades.

When Marcus woke up, the only thing he could think about was getting those banners back and restoring his unit’s lost honor.  Despite this, as he led his ravaged and humiliated unit back to their camp to sleep off their loss and get over the shock of jubilant victory turning into abject defeat, he couldn’t help but smile.

‘Winning would mean nothing without a strong rival,’ he thought to himself.  ‘Watch yourselves, Snow Lions…  We’re coming for you, now…’

---

By the end of the FTX’s second day, all of the training units had completed their camps.  All of the units had also deployed their scouts, finding the locations of the other camps fairly easily—with the sole exception of the Snow Lions’ gorge.  With the need for access to water, all of the units avoided making camp in the mostly dry western mountains, making it pointless to scout the mountains unless they were specifically looking for the Snow Lions.

But ‘specifically looking for the Snow Lions’ was an apt description for what the Steel Century had preoccupied themselves with.  Word of their attack on the Obsidian Cataphracts hadn’t spread, as the units weren’t in a position to socialize with each other, not even during meals; the Academy’s policy was to deliver food to the units every week and allow them to manage their supplies themselves.  In fact, following these supply caravans were part of the reason why the other camps were so easy to find.

The Snow Lions, in contrast, met their supply caravan at a pre-arranged point, which the other units hadn’t even realized they could do.  With their entire unit present to pick up their supplies, it was easy to dissuade scouts from trying to follow them back to their camp.

The Obsidian Cataphracts had to fend off another assault on the second night, this time by the Blood Eagles who didn’t know the Cataphracts had already lost their banner.  Since their defenses had been completed and were far more alert due to the previous night’s attack, the Cataphracts managed to fight off the Eagles.

A similar attack happened at the Black Vipers’ camp at roughly the same time.  The Silver Legionaries attempted to seize their banner in a surprise night-time raid but had been quickly beaten back by Tiberias’ men.  They managed to hold on to their own banner and retreat after the failed attack, but the casualties they took made them easy prey for the Crimson Tigresses, who had followed them since they had left their camp.  In the aftermath of the second battle, the Tigresses took possession of the Legionaries’ banner.

The Silver Legionaries’ woes didn’t end there, either.  Upon returning to their camp, they found that another unit had attempted to raid them while they were gone.  There hadn’t been anything the Legionaries had thought was at risk of being stolen, as they had brought their banner with them when they left, but the other unit had disagreed; all the Legionaries’ supplies were gone.  An entire week’s worth of food and over three thousand excess training arrows that they had been given by the Academy had been stolen.

Needless to say, this unpleasant surprise crushed what little remained of the Legionaries’ morale.  Not even the replacement food supplies their Instructors arranged to have delivered the next day could raise their spirits.

---

“Well that was disappointing,” muttered Castor as he, Leon, and Alphonsus reconvened in their meeting room.  The rest of the unit busied themselves storing everything they had stolen from the Silver Legionaries’ camp.

“It wasn’t guaranteed that they’d be there, can’t be helped,” said Leon with a shrug.

“We still should’ve stayed and ambushed them on their way back,” said Alphonsus with a frown.

“We can leave that for tomorrow after they’ve spent a night without food,” said Castor.

“But,” suggested Leon, “we should probably have scouts keeping an eye on the rest of the units, to prevent our time from being wasted again.”

“Hmmm,” said Castor, resting his chin on his hand and thinking for a moment.  “Was our time truly wasted here?”

“Well, no,” Leon replied, “I guess that was just bad phrasing; effort spent seizing our enemy’s supplies is never wasted.  But, I think that our time would be put to better use seizing banners, at least for now.”

“And then switch over to stealing supplies?” asked Alphonsus with a sadistic smile.

“Yes,” said Leon, his lips turning slightly upward in a wicked smile of his own.

“Sounds like a fine strategy,” said Castor, adding his own smile to the mix, “I’ll get some scouts together to head out in the morning to get the lay of the land.  I know that the Senior Instructor said that battles don’t typically start for three or four days at least, but I can’t imagine that the other units have been spending these past two days sitting on their hands in their camps.  I mean, the Steel Century already made their first move and the Silver Legionaries were clearly doing something last night since they weren’t at their camp, no reason to think that the Crimson Tigresses or the Deathbringers have remained passive…”

“Right.  We don’t necessarily know who has what banners anymore…” said Alphonsus.

“Well, we already have six banners, since we got lucky with the Steel Century and grabbed four all at once,” said Leon.  “That only leaves the Warriors of the Naga, Black Vipers, Crimson Tigresses, and Silver Legionaries.”

“The Warriors of the Naga’s banner was seized by the Crimson Tigresses months ago, and they never managed to retrieve it.  I doubt they’ve managed to retrieve in these two days…” said Alphonsus.

“So, should the Crimson Tigresses be our next target, rather than the Silver Legionaries?  They have the most banners, after all,” Castor proposed.

“That… might be a hard-fought battle.  They’re a smaller unit, but they’ve trained hard to keep up with the rest of us.  The fact that they managed to seize and retain another unit’s banner is proof of that.”

“What’s life without a little hardship?” Castor asked.

“Hardly worth living, I’d say,” Leon murmured in response.  “Then I guess it’s settled, then?  The Crimson Tigresses next?”

---

“Are you sure the Cataphracts don’t have their banner anymore?” Valeria asked a recently-returned Crimson Tigress scout on the morning of the third day.

“Yes, absolutely,” the scout replied.

“Well, then, that just leaves the Steel Century and the Black Vipers,” said Valeria.

“Aaand the Snow Lions,” reminded Asiya, her tone teasing and eyes glittering with friendly provocation.

“And them, but we don’t exactly know where they are, do we?” Valeria responded without showing nay signs of being flustered.

“Then we should go after the Black Vipers,” Asiya said.  “I think they’ll be easier than the Steel Century.”

“Why?  I doubt any Black Vipers apart from some scouts will leave their camp today,” Valeria said with a disapproving tone.  She really didn’t like how passive the Black Vipers had been; she thought they should’ve taken a much more active role in the year’s inter-unit battles if only to showcase their skills just as the rest of the units had done.  That said, even though she had rarely seen him fight, her lack of knowledge of Tiberias’ fighting and leadership style made her apprehensive, and she didn’t want to attack him when he was at his strongest if possible.

“Well, it’s either them or facing down Marcus…”

Just then, another Crimson Tigress scout returned.  She had been the one Valeria and Asiya had sent to check up on the Steel Century.  And, to the shock of both third-tier ladies, she reported that the Steel Century had lost all three of the banners they had started the FTX with.  Since their other scouts had already reported back, Valeria and Asiya already knew none of them had the missing banners, leaving the Snow Lions as the only possible culprit for seizing not only the Steel Century’s banners but the Obsidian Cataphracts’ as well.

“The other units must have the same information as we do,” said Valeria with some worry.  “If it’s down to us, the Black Vipers, and the Snow Lions, the other seven units will probably focus on us since we’re only half the size the rest of them are.  We need to be extraordinarily careful today…”

“We’re still going out?  Shouldn’t we hole up in camp and defend ourselves instead?” asked Asiya.

“No,” Valeria swiftly answered.  “If we stay put, then we give up the initiative and will be forced to endure attacks all day.  Even if we don’t fight the Black Vipers, it’ll be safer to remain on the move.  With our numbers, trying to fight a pitched defensive battle will only lead to us losing our banners.”

“Hmm, in that case, we should take our spare arrows and at least some of our food with us.  Best not leave it here unguarded, especially since we can’t exactly spare any guards,” Asiya said.

“Yes.  Now, let’s get ready!  I want us out of this camp in less than half an hour!” Valeria shouted.  If they had any hope at all of putting up a good showing this cycle, then they needed to be aggressive, and she felt more than up to that task.

—-

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